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The Kids’ Gardens

August 12, 2015 By Laura 5 Comments

After intending to for far too long, I am finally sharing with you our kids’ little gardens, today!

All 4 of our kids help in our family gardens at some point or other through the gardening seasons; although some do with more joy and ambition than others. There is always some weeding, dead-heading flowers, or picking vegetables, that needs tending to. I do much of it myself, but sometimes I could use another pair of hands, and the company is nice sometimes, too.

But just prior to the gardening season in 2013, I pitched the idea to the kids, of having their very own little garden.
I explained that they could plant and grow whatever they wanted, but they were also responsible for keeping it up. That meant keeping it weeded, watered, dead-heading their own flowers, and generally tending to it with love.  Not only that, but after their father built the frame base, they had to be a team and prepare the bed themselves. They all loved the idea, and each have had their own little garden ever since!


It may have been more work than they anticipated, that first year!  Because although we have had loam brought in by the truck full for our other garden beds, we had a perfectly good dirt pile next to the driveway that we didn’t really want there.  It had been overgrown with weeds and grass, though. Basically, it was less of a dirt pile any longer, and more like a grassy hill, riddled with rocks! So they did work hard, like a team. The boys dug the hill up, pulling and shaking out the grass and weed clumps, and putting shovel fulls earth onto the handmade screen on the wheel barrow.  The girls sifted the dirt through, to remove all of the rocks, and then wheeled the barrow over to the garden bed, and dumped the dirt in.

That was the less than fun part. But they made the most of it, and it was good and done for many years to come.
Now let’s look at their gardens, today…. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Gardening, Homeschooling, Parenting, The Big Picture, The Homestead Tagged With: Catholic-blogs, Catholic-families, Catholic-kids, Celosia, creative-gardening-for-kids, garden photos, Gardening, gardening-ideas-for-kids, homeschooling, kids-gardening, kids-gardens, lessons-in-gardening-for-kids, painted-garden-rocks

Little Garden Plans / Front Yard Transformation

August 16, 2009 By Laura 5 Comments

We have some little garden plans for our yard, and it’s likely you’ll be able to watch the transformation of our ugly front yard take place, right here on our blog!   But we can tell you right away….it’ll always be slow-going.  A little a year. Whatever we can do.  Whatever we have the time, or the money for.  And when we’ve thought about it, we’ve realized we need both at the same time, to see any real progress.  ; )    But you know, we’ve learned to enjoy ‘the process’.  The RIDE, as they say.  After all, we may be too old to ever really DO the end.   But having hopes and dreams are half the fun!

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So this has been or sad and mundane front yard for….well, forever. It did have some nicer grass at one time. But the soil here is pretty sandy, and the sun is blasting it for most of the day.

The thing about the front yard is, we haven’t had much of a use for it.  I mean……it’s nice to HAVE one in front of the house, but it hasn’t really served any useful purposes.  We haven’t really utilized the space much because, it’s right along the street, and there is no fence.  So it’s never been safe when the kids were younger. It’s also less private than the side yard.  So it’s just been there.

So quite a few years ago, we started at least ‘talking’ about what we wanted to do with the front yard.  We asked ourselves in what way we could make the most if it, and what it would need so we DID start using it.   We talked about adding shrubs and mulch along the house (even when it was the old house), because that tall foundation is just…ugly. We also talked about putting a nice blossoming cherry or some other nice tree in the center, and just landscaping the whole area with stone walk-ways, mulched areas and flowers, a couple of benches, etc.

But then this year, we decided to start gardening to grow vegetables, and all of the ideas in our heads for the front yard have started being revised.  So it’s kind of good we waited!   We have some general layouts in mind, although not the specifics decided yet.  One thing we do know for sure……every year we’ll likely do a little more, and in due time (meaning, many years from now), it’s going to be one amazing transformation.

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Here’s some of the first steps we’ve taken so far this year.  You see our driveway??  It’s just HUGE.  Wide.  As wide as all of our side yard, and some of the house.  Who needs that much drive-way?  We don’t often (actually…ever in the past few years) had lots of company 1y one time. Maybe 1 extra vehicle is here.  So we really didn’t need so much.  We thought it would be nicer, to have a wider front yard!   So we took the wood strips along the yard line…..

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……and moved them over 10 feet! Now we just need to grow some grass.  Or at least, whatever that green stuff is on the rest of the yard. lol    As I told Michael, we may regret this decision once all of the kids start driving.  But then, we’re not buying them all cars, so….we probably have a good while to worry about that, if we were going to.  (We’re not. lol)

d_garden-planning-for-front-yard

Look how much yard we are gaining!  And it’ll just look nicer too.  More proportionate.

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Then we had 5 cubic yards of loam delivered for….

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….the garden beds Michael was building.  This was all happening in mid-May!!  We wanted to grow our own strawberries and vegetables over the summer.   Our plan for starting this year, were 1 4×8 garden bed, and 2 4×10’s.   The one in the photo above was the first we did, the 4×8, for our strawberry bed.   We removed the top layer of (crab)grass,  laid a few layers of newspaper underneath (extending out the sides to outside of the bed), and then filled them up with loam.

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The kids jumped right in to help!!  Anything that involves a wheel barrow and shovels is an exciting thing!

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Of course, some have more endurance than others.  Even the Energizer Bunny ha nothing on this one.  She could work until the cows come home. And since we don’t have any cows…….lol.  She’s a tough one.  Just look at the size of that shovel. But she was digging up shovel fulls out of the loam pile, and throwing it in the barrow.  Loading it up one after the other.  I was bringing the girl water and asking her to take a break!  She’s a happy worker.  Always asking to help, no matter where we are, or what we are doing.

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Others don’t have t be asked to take a break. lol.  This boy loves to run, like no other little boy I have ever known.  I see track in his future. But really, they all jumped in and did their part helping create our gardens!  They all worked really hard, too.    Including ME and Michael….even though we’re not in these photos.  All of this was really my idea, so no one was going to let me get away ‘watching’!!  But the truth was, I was excited!!   Never thought I’d see the day I’d be interested in gardening, but when the urge hit, it was for real!   I sweat and got dirty and everything!  ; )

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I even planted the strawberry starter plants almost all by myself!  One half is June Bearing, the other half, Ever Bearing.

As we posted in an earlier post, the squirrels wasted no time messing with our strawberry plants….

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…..so Michael wasted no time showing them who was boss, and who was going to win this battle!

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In the morning, before the kids really got to working with our gardens, they wanted to help me transplant these  Dahlia Salvadores into my big pot.  So I let them all add some extra soil to the top, and water them.

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The next day, Michael got to building another bed, and we followed the same process for that one, as well as the 3rd.

The kids were all wanting to help again, until they didn’t anymore.  Except {O}, who always did.

o

These 2 4×10 beds though, were for vegetables and flowers….all of which couldn’t have plantings put in until at least the end of May.  So by the time 3 weeks later rolled around on Memorial Day weekend, were very ready to get to work and get them all planted! We had all of the vegetable plants we wanted, and we worked until they were all planted.

Here’s what we put in:  zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, red peppers, and 3 varieties of tomatoes.   Plus the strawberry bed.

I didn’t take photos of everything just planted.  It didn’t look so pretty at first, and besides, I was tired!!   But I have taken lots of photos of what the front yard looks like now, what has become of our 3 garden beds all summer here, and all of that is coming right up soon!! Right here in The Homestead section.

In closing, we’d love to know how many of our visitors enjoy posts like these?   Will you enjoy/look forward to yard/gardening/landscaping posts here at House of Joyful Noise?  Or do you have enough projects of your own, that you don’t need to see someone else’s too??  lol.  We love following people’s projects, picking up ideas or tricks along the way, and seeing how things turn out!  So we’d love to know what YOU think.  It gives us an inkling as to how many photos I should take along the way, and how much detail to put into posts like these.  Even a handful of really interested visitors is worth the effort to us. We love doing this stuff, and we love to share with those who love to watch it all come to life.  (Even if you’ll be watching for years. : )  So please let us know!!

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Filed Under: Gardening, Home Projects, The Homestead Tagged With: front-yard-garden-plans, garden-plans, garden-talk, kids-gardening

We Picked Our 1st Garden Strawberry!

June 29, 2009 By Laura Leave a Comment

Back on June 11, {O} came running in the house all excited, because Daddy had let her pick the first garden strawberry.

strawberries

It’s was a BEAUTY, don’t you think?  Thank goodness it was a good size berry, because every one of us were so excited, we had to split it 6 ways! My bit was just a tad bitter, I think. It was kind of hard to tell because it was so small.

strawberry

There were a few other of the June-bearing berries here and there, that were almost ready for picking, too.

strawberries

Some were in earlier stages than other, but they still looked like they were going to be good ones!

strawberries

Only a few days later, many that were green had already really ripened up nicely. Things were looking rather promising!

strawberries

Although now and then, we find one like this, and it just doesn’t seem quite right.  They sure make us laugh though!  Perhaps as we become more educated gardeners, we’ll learn just went wrong with berries like these.  Gosh…I almost feel sorry for it, the more I look at it.  But God doesn’t make mistakes. Right?  Maybe it’s sole purpose is for us gardeners to find the gift of chuckles among the leaves and vines. It sure works for me!

girl-picks-first-strawberry

All of the kids have enjoyed the excitement of building garden beds, and watching things grow and develop.  But it’s evident that {O} really feels the joy and passion inside that I do, with this new experience of gardening.

You know….I was just about to say that I wish I discovered the joy of growing produce in your own gardens as young as {O}, when I was suddenly flooded with a few childhood garden memories of my own.  In fact, I’ll have to dig up and share with you all,  a little something I just remembered I have stored away, that I think you all may appreciate.  If for nothing else, because it’ll give you a little gardening chuckle.

I did love gardens when I was little, come to think of it.  So maybe it’s not a new passion after all, but just a forgotten one, that has been…..hibernating.  I’m sure glad it’s decided to come out, and fill me with daily joy.

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Filed Under: Gardening, The Homestead Tagged With: Gardening, growing strawberries, kids-gardening, picking-strawberries, strawberry beds, strawberry-photography, strawberry-photos

Re-potting Our 6 Tiny Potted Plants

June 1, 2008 By Laura 2 Comments

potting soil on garden shovel

If you’ve been visiting us here at our blog for awhile, you may remember when we planted these 6 tiny-potted plants, and later when we gave an update on their sprouts growth.  Well the time came re-potting our 6 tiny potted plants.

We initially thought when that time came for transplanting, it would be outdoors into the ground, but we don’t think their quite ready for THAT yet. The thing is, they kind of seemed to stop growing pretty much after that growth update, and we decided they must be root-bound. So we bought some cheap (but pretty!) pots and got to work.

First, the kids gathered some rocks from the driveway and put them in the bottom of each pot, to ensure proper drainage when watering. Then they put in some potting soil, some plant food, and a little more soil. Then they transferred their plants from their tiny pots to their new pots.

tiny-potted-plants

Below, {O} transplants hers.

child re-potting plant

{J} transplants his.

boy re-potting plant

{A} shows {J} all of the roots bound up at the bottom of her plant.

kids-looking-at-plant-roots

{S} makes sure his plant is all snug and pressed down into the new soil, after the transfer.

boy re-potting-plant

(O} gets hers in there just right.

little girl re-potting plant

{A} had to 2 of hers to re-pot; one being not of the 6, but another she had from awhile ago.

older girl re-potting plant

Just a shot I had to take. : )

potting soil on garden shovel

Here they are all done! You can kind of tell they’ve just been through a bit of a traumatic journey, but we know they will settle in and thrive in their new pot homes, once they get comfortable and used to their new surroundings. We hope eventually they will be big and strong enough to go into the ground, but for now they are lined up along the windows of our kitchen sink.

re-potting-little-plants

Did you notice we transferred our initial letters too? Where competitions go, it’s never over until there is no hope of winning, and none of us lose hope very easily! We’ll let you know if they really start to grow and thrive, and be in need of being transplanted again. Who knows…they may just make it to God’s rich earth someday! At least we’re all hoping so.

Filed Under: Elementary Homeschooling, Elementary Homeschooling SCIENCE, Gardening, Homeschooling, Nature Study, Science Tagged With: homeschooling, homeschooling-elementary-science, kids-gardening, kids-growing-plants, kids-re-potting-plants

6 Tiny Potted Plants

April 15, 2008 By Laura Leave a Comment

tiny potted plants

How cute are these tiny potted plants sitting on the window sill?  Something about little sights like this just stir me somewhere inside, and make me smile.

We got the kids this little kit, to plant some flowers in these little starter potted plants, which we will later transplant into our flower beds outdoors. (They just LOVE stuff like this. All projects, really.)

The first thing they needed to do was put the peat pellets in a bowl, and add one cup of water.  Then they had to wait FIVE MINUTES.  You know…..eternity, for a kid.  This photo below totally cracks me up, because of their expressions of waiting….and waiting….they look thrilled, don’t they?

waiting-for-soaking

Just staring at this bowl…..for FIVE MINUTES…..as they soil soaked up the water and expanded.  After about 2 minutes,  {S} couldn’t take it anymore, and went into the kitchen to stare at the set timer instead. : )  At least with the numbers counting down, he could see the end in sight.

tiny potted plants

FINALLY the timer went off, and it was time to mix it up good.  They all took turns getting the job done well.

kids potting plants

Then Daddy filled up the little pots to the top, while the kids chose the flower seeds of their choice, and counted out 10 seeds each.  {A} and {S} chose Delphinium (Pacific Giant), {O} and I chose Rudbeckia (Gloriosa Daisy), and { J } and Daddy chose Hollyhock (Alcea Rosea).  Then their little hands got to work, planting each seed about 1/4″ into the soil.

little hands potting plants

They were pretty happy with their little potted plants, and very excited to watch them grow.  We put our initials on them to know whose is whose, and of course, to see whose is growing the best.  Will some of us have a more skilled green thumb than others?  Or do some species grow faster or slower than others?  We’ll see!  And I’m sure we’ll keep you posted.

tiny potted plants

Unfortunately, they have to be kept in this little ‘greenhouse’ to grow.  So much for my happy little vision of them lined up on the window sill.  But I’m gettin’ over it.

tiny potted plants

Let the growing begin!

Filed Under: Elementary Homeschooling, Elementary Homeschooling SCIENCE, Homeschooling, Nature Study, Science Tagged With: dirt, elementary-homeschooling-science, flowers, kids-gardening, kids-growing-plants, kids-potting-plants, plants, seeds, soil, tiny-potted-plants

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